The Ninth Month.......by Rumi

You watch the sensuous movements of the veil.
Do you know there's a Chinese girl behind it
whose face you can't see?

You see a reflection of the real moon
in all the stones that lie at your feet.

You're a leaf scattered by an invisible wind.
Don't you know something's moving you?

Unless some thought stirs that wind, you don't stir.
If the wind isn't still, you're not.

Constellations, planets, your inmost states
are like camels in a row. You're the last.

Curl up and drink in the blood
like a child in heaven's womb.

You feel a pain in the sphere of your heart,
but when you lift your head it's gone.

Your ninth month is the Beloved Shams' face,
you, who have been trusted with the secret of both worlds.

O heart, be patient in this blood
until the ninth month.

~ Rumi
(The Ninth Month)
From Love is a Stranger,
Trans by by Kabir Helminski

Don't look for new ways to flee across the chessboard...by Rumi

The wilderness way Moses took
was pure need and desolation.

Remember how you cried when you were a child?

Joseph's path to the throne room of Egypt
where he distributed grain to his brothers
led through the pit his brothers left him in.

Don't look for new ways
to flee across the chessboard.
Listen to hear the checkmate
spoken directly to you.

Mice nibble. That's what they need
to be doing. What do you need?
How will you impress the one
who gave you life?

If all you can do is crawl,
start crawling.

You have a hundred cynical fantasies
about God. Make them ninety-nine!

If you can't pray a real prayer, pray
hypocritically, full of doubt
and dry-mouthed.

God accepts
counterfeit
money
as though
it were real !

~ Rumi
Translated by Coleman Barks
"The Illuminated Rumi"

This flesh of mine is as pure silver, while my inner reality is as pure gold....by Ibn 'Arabi

With my very own hands 
I laid my little daughter to rest because she is of my very flesh, 

Thus am I constrained to submit to the rule of parting, 
so that my hand is now empty and contains nothing. 

Bound to this moment we are in, caught between the yesterday that has gone
and the tomorrow that is yet to come.

This flesh of mine is as pure silver,
while my inner reality is as pure gold.

Like a bow have I grown, and my true posture is as my rib.
My Lord it is who says that He has created me in a state of suffering and loss.

How then can I possibly hope for any rest,
dwelling as I do in such a place and state?

~ Ibn 'Arabi

My soul, why do you tarry so long in the land of exile....by Rumi

My soul, 
why do you tarry so long in the land of exile? 

Return from this exile; 
how long will you be dispersed?

I sent a hundred letters, I signaled a hundred ways; either
you do not know the way or you do not read the letter.

If you do not read the letter, the letter itself reads you; and
if you do not know the way,
you are in the grip of Him who knows the way.

Return, for in this prison no one knows your worth; sit not
with the stonyhearted, for you are a gem of this mine.

You who have escaped from heart and soul,
washed your hands of heart and soul,
leaped forth from the snares of the world
return, for you are one of the falcons.

You are both water and stream and are seeking for water;
you are both lion and deer and are better than they.

How far is it from you to the Soul?
Are you more remarkable than the Soul?

Are you commingled with the Soul,
or a ray of the Beloved?

~ Rumi
From Mystical poems of rumi
by A.J Arberry

Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven....by William Butler Yeats

 Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,

The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light,

I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;

I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

~ William Butler Yeats

There are so many positions of love...by Hafiz

There are so many positions of love:
each curve on a
branch,

the thousand ways your eyes can hold us,
the infinite shapes each mind
can draw,

the spring orchestra of scents and sounds
wafting through the air,

the currents of light combusting like
passionate
lips,

the revolution of the universe’s skirt,
whose folds contain other worlds,

Our every sigh that falls against
His inconceivably close,
omnipresent,
divine
body.

~ Hafiz

And For No Reason......by Hafiz

And
For no reason
I start skipping like a child!

And
For no reason
I turn into a leaf
That is carried so high
I kiss the sun's mouth
And dissolve!

And
For no reason
A thousand birds
Choose my head for a conference table
Start passing their
Cups of wine
And their wild songbooks all around!

And
For every reason in existence
I begin to eternally.
To eternally laugh and love!

When I turn into a leaf
And start dancing,
I run to kiss our beautiful Friend
And I dissolve in the Truth
That I am.

~ Hafiz
Translation by Daniel Ladinsky